


Shelter

by whenyoudesertme (phrenk)



Category: Arashi (Band), Japanese Actor RPF, Johnny's Entertainment
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-14
Updated: 2014-06-14
Packaged: 2018-02-04 14:17:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1782085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phrenk/pseuds/whenyoudesertme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sho's caught outside without an umbrella when he meets Aiba.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shelter

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Aiba/Sho fic! Now I've written all ten Arashi pairings! I am excited. :D Thanks to kinoface for the beta! ♥ Cross-posted [here](http://whenyoudesertme.livejournal.com/37093.html).

Sho had been waiting for Nino for half an hour already when it began to rain. It didn't improve his mood, which had already been edging near anger, and it certainly didn't improve the state of his nicest suit.

He'd been feeling so good about himself when he agreed to meet Nino, and while he hadn't worn the suit especially to impress his ex-boyfriend, he'd certainly been pleased he wouldn't have time to change out of it after his case in court that afternoon.

Now the rain splattered on his blue-pinstriped shoulders as he stared up into the sky with frustration. The sky dumped rain down harder in response.

"Hello!"

The yell was from across the park, and Sho automatically looked over in the hope that it was Nino at last. Even from a distance, he could tell it wasn't. This non-Nino person was sprinting down the cobblestone path, stomping in every gathering puddle as he went.

Sho wrinkled his nose judgmentally, then was surprised to find himself smiling. The man's long legs were eating up the space between them as he galloped along with his arms flailing more or less gracefully out to the sides while he zigzagged in search of the best puddles.

Two park benches down the path from Sho, the man's progress halted as he tripped and went down with a startled curse. He landed hard on his hands and knees, barely missing banging his head on the bench, and Sho was starting forward to ask if he was all right when the man popped back up irrepressibly. He picked up something he'd dropped, and that was when Sho realized the man had an umbrella.

Sho frowned. Then he scowled. He was there in his best suit, which was getting ruined along with his Italian shoes, he was getting stood up by his ex-boyfriend, who was supposed to be there to ask for him back so that Sho could turn him down, and he was _soaked_. He was soaked and getting more so by the second as this guy, this irresponsible idiot, ran around in public with an umbrella he wasn't using.

Before he could stop himself, Sho started forward again. "Excuse me," he called, voice tight.

The man looked up. "Hi! Oh, I thought you were Matsujun because you look so fancy, but you aren't, are you. Don't worry, I'm all right!"

"I'm not asking," Sho snapped, then pressed his lips together in annoyance, most of it at himself. He'd thought he grown out of his anger problem, but clearly not if he was harassing random people on the street.

Somehow, though, he couldn't let it go.

"You have an umbrella," he said, gesturing meaningfully toward it.

"I do! It was a gift from Leader. It has fish on it, you see."

Sho didn't see at all. "Why aren't you _using_ it?"

The other man peered at him through the downpour, seemingly unbothered by the rain beating down on him while he carried the unopened umbrella. "Do you want to borrow it?"

He held the blue umbrella out to Sho, who felt all of his anger undermined by the simple gesture.

"It's too late now," he said grudgingly. He felt ridiculous. And very wet.

And Nino still hadn't shown up.

"Who are you waiting for?" the man asked, sidling closer as if Sho were a wild animal.

"My ex," Sho muttered. "Though it's none of your business." He closed his eyes and waited for the humiliation to be too much so that he could go home. The rain hitting him stopped abruptly.

He opened his eyes to meet the inquiring gaze of the stranger holding the umbrella over him. Sho blinked water away, staring into the kind, handsome face, then looked up.

"Why are the fish on the inside of the umbrella?"

The man laughed. "Leader painted them on himself! He said that he wanted me to be able to see his fish, not strangers on the street. I'll have to tell him you like it!"

Sho hadn't said any such thing, but he didn't correct the man. Instead he stood under the umbrella, looking up at the colorful fish, and wondered why he felt so warm even in a rain-drenched suit.

"My name's Aiba Masaki," the man said suddenly. "A month ago... a month ago my boyfriend broke up with me--"

Sho startled, eyes shooting to the stranger's, in an automatic panic that he'd somehow given himself away as gay. Then he registered that it was this Aiba who'd outed himself, even though Sho had been carefully gender-neutral about his ex, and that made Sho feel small and ashamed, but also automatically protective.

"You shouldn't tell random people--" he started heatedly, but gave up on controlling everything the next moment with a rush like the air being let out of a balloon. "Anyway, you're getting soaked. The umbrella is big enough for both of us."

Aiba grinned, his whole face lighting up. Sho was surprised the rain didn't let up in response to that ridiculous sunshine. "I can't share the umbrella! Not when I don't know your name..."

Sho smirked, then looked down, shy. "Sakurai Sho. Um... my ex..."

The umbrella jerked as Aiba straightened in alarm. "Oh, do you want me to go away in case they come? Are you thinking you'll get back together?"

"No!" Sho said hastily, hand coming up to the handle of the umbrella to keep Aiba there. He took a deep breath, willing himself to absorb some of Aiba's thoughtless bravery, then said carefully, "They... he probably isn't coming." After a moment he realized something and said without thinking, "I bet he just wants the video game he forgot at my apartment anyway."

Aiba didn't say anything, but he edged closer, closer, and then he was ducking under the umbrella to stand so close Sho could feel him shivering.

"Why are you out in the rain?" Sho asked, then realized that with his hand still on the umbrella handle, his fingers were overlapping with Aiba's own. Aiba's skin was damp and warm. Sho stopped breathing, pulse thudding through his veins, but Aiba didn't seem to notice.

"I was mailing a letter," Aiba said, pointing vaguely off in the direction from which he'd come. "Then it started raining, and at first I was worried about my clothes getting wet--"

"--even though you have an umbrella," Sho couldn't help interjecting.

"--but then I remembered it's laundry day! So why not get good and soaked, right? If it weren't laundry day, my wet clothes might get all moldy and stinky, but it's laundry day, Sakurai-san. The rain can't hurt me!"

"You did fall down," Sho pointed out, laughing.

"I fall down when it's not raining. Don't let the rain think it beat me, because I'm victorious. Do you want to come home with me?"

Sho, lulled into complacency by being out of the rain, by Aiba's steady chatter, and by the warmth of Aiba's hand, executed an unattractive double-take at this invitation out of the blue.

"I live right there!" Aiba continued, gesturing across the nearby street. "And it's laundry day, um, I might have mentioned? So you could put your stuff in with mine."

"This suit is dry-clean only," Sho said automatically, then locked eyes with Aiba. The stranger's eyes were wide and guileless, but the next moment Aiba's fingers twitched under Sho's, then moved just enough that his thumb was lying over Sho's knuckles.

"Are you--" Sho started, then couldn't get the words out. If Aiba were hitting on him, did that make the offer more or less tempting? Aiba's cheeks were rosy from his run in the rain, and droplets of water clung to his brow, his cheekbones, his full lips, momentarily serious, already edging back toward a smile...

Sho hadn't slept with anyone since Nino, nearly three months ago now. Just the idea of going home with some man he didn't know, to have sex then part like nothing happened, had Sho shuddering hard in arousal. It also made him so nervous he couldn't speak, and Aiba must have seen some of that on his face.

"We can have a laundry date," he said, backing it up to a less provocative place with a friendly smile. He started to say something else, maybe dialing down even more to a platonic offer of assistance, or a polite gesture so that Sho could turn it down easily, but Sho mustered all of his courage and leaned in to kiss Aiba on the mouth.

For a moment, neither of them moved, standing under an umbrella in the pouring rain with their mouths pressed together awkwardly, but then Aiba shifted, turning his body toward Sho's, and his mouth moved a bit to the left. The change in angle had Sho's knees going weak, his mouth softening in shock, and that encouraged Aiba to press even closer and kiss Sho for real.

They might have been kissing for hours for all Sho's dazed senses could tell. All he could feel was Aiba's mouth, wet and warm and enthusiastic on his own, and the anchoring warmth of their hands on the umbrella.

In reality, it was probably mere minutes until Sho had to break away. Unfortunately, the reason he had to stop kissing Aiba was to sneeze, and he couldn't turn away in time to stop it from going all over Aiba's sweatshirt.

He stared down, lips still tingling madly from Aiba's kisses, and stared in horror at the splotch on the dark gray cotton. It was noticeably different from the pattern of the rain, and besides, Aiba had been right there, right there as Sho _sneezed on him_ , so there was no explaining it away as anything but Sho's snot on Aiba's clothes.

Aiba snickered, then guffawed. "Oh my god, Sho-san! Way to ruin the romance."

When Sho didn't respond, just slumped sadly and tried to retrieve his hand from the umbrella and Aiba, Aiba leaned in again to whisper playfully in Sho's ear, "Don't worry, Sho-san; it's laundry day, after all."

He kissed Sho's ear gently, then his neck with the slightest edge of teeth, and Sho found himself tilting toward Aiba and they were kissing again, mouths hot despite the cool rain still soaking their bodies.

This time when Sho sneezed, he managed to turn to the side in time, pathetically grateful for that fact when he sneezed three more times in succession.

"Come on," Aiba laughed, tugging Sho along happily. "Let's get you inside."

Sho stumbled along after him, bleary from his developing chill as much as Aiba's mouth, then protested when Aiba pulled the umbrella away.

Aiba closed the umbrella, hiding the fish, then grabbed Sho's hand back.

"Come on!" he yelled, face turned toward Sho for a moment in breathlessly excited conspiracy. "We're beating the rain, let's go!"

He set off in a sprint, dragging Sho along with him, and then Sho was running on his own power, laughing loudly and stomping in puddles with whoops and splashes, hand in hand with Aiba.

"I have soup!" Aiba caroled absurdly, hand squeezing Sho's as he sprinted toward the end of the path. "And towels! You have to stay with me while your clothes are getting clean, so I'll take care of you!"

"My clothes!" Sho yelled back, laughing so hard he could barely make himself heard over the rain and the loud beating of their feet on the ground. "Dry-clean only!"

They made it to the street, where Sho extricated his hand with an apologetic smile. In the real world, he didn't hold hands with other men in public, not even during a downpour with no one around to see.

Aiba didn't seem offended. He grinned and flourished his closed umbrella out across the street. "Behold, my final victory over the rain."

Sho followed the pointing umbrella and saw a dry-cleaning shop, neon sign still flashing 'Open'.

"I'll bring your suit down once I get you dry and cozy on my couch," Aiba said, smiling at Sho with genuine pleasure at his plan.

"I'd kiss you right now," Sho said impulsively, despite having left the shelter of the park with its thick trees. He didn't bother to finish the sentence; if anyone could understand, it'd be Aiba, he was somehow sure.

Aiba stared at him a moment, eyes wide and dark. Then he opened his umbrella and brought it down close around their heads.

"Don't worry," he whispered, and his eyes crinkled happily at the edges. "The fish will protect us."

Sho couldn't resist him.


End file.
